Missionaries in Mattoon

This morning Aly needed to go to the library over in Mattoon, so I took her over, and since it was lunch time and we were in the "big city," we decided to grab a bite to eat at a cute little cafe there on Main Street. When we walked inside, there at a large table in the front was a whole slew of missionaries--white shirts, ties, name tags, and all! Some of them recognized me from church and said hello, and then who should I see sitting down at the end of the table but David Loveless from my home ward in Utah!! Ha ha ha. It's a small world. Mom told me that David had been called to the Peoria mission, but it pretty much covers all of central and southern Illinois, so he could have ended up anywhere, but I guess he's down in Effingham for now and came up to Mattoon today for a district meeting. I happened to be wearing my BYU sweatshirt today, which they thoroughly enjoyed (several of them are BYU students). I think everyone at the restaurant wondered what was going on--they were being invaded by Mormons!! Aly liked meeting all of the Elders, and she's excited to tell her family about meeting 10 missionaries all at once (come to find out, her family was a little worried about the fact that she was going to be rooming with a Mormon girl, but now rather than being afraid of the Mormons, they're intrigued). In fact, one day Alyson asked me about some articles I'd written, which I hadn't ever told her about, and I said, "How did you know about those?" She said, "Oh, my mom did quite a bit of research on you during the summer." :-) Oh, great.

After lunch, which was pretty good, we said bye to the missionaries, and an older lady stopped me on my way out. She asked me who all of those young men were, and I said that they are missionaries. She said, "Oh, praise the Lord!" Then she went over to them and said, "Mattoon is so, what's the word, . . . blessed, yes, blessed to have you all here." She then told them how she is a grandma and they all reminded her of her grandsons who are away at school. It was way cute. Alyson was loving the whole scene. :-)

This afternoon I went and worked with Dr. Hardeman. There were some funny essays that the students wrote, but nothing could quite compare to one we got yesterday afternoon. This particular student was talking about the Kansas-Nebraska Act and said, "This law was enacted by President Stephen A. Douglas who was President of the United States at that time." Dr. Hardeman had been drifting off to sleep, but that woke him up, and we both got a good laugh. He said, "Is that the same President Douglas who appears on the three dollar bill?" Stephen Douglas is pretty famous around here, but no, he was never President. Today Dr. Hardeman was kind of falling asleep, so he stood up and walked around for a minute. He was standing over by his bookshelf, I was reading an essay to him, and then all of a sudden I heard snoring! I looked over at him, and he was just standing there snoring away. Fascinating! How does one maintain balance when sleeping while standing up, I wonder?

Dr. Hardeman needed to pick up some cigarettes on the way home, so we had to swing by the drive through discount smoke shop. I've been to a drive through liquor store before (in Vidalia, Louisiana with Ranger Tim who was buying lottery tickets), but never a drive through smoke shop. The things I do for my assistantship! :-) I can't complain though--the assistantship really is a sweet deal. Dr. Hardeman told me that his favorite essay he's ever gotten was from a student who, instead of writing about Uncle Tom's Cabin, wrote about Uncle Tom's Thumb! Ha ha ha. We should compile a book of funny student essays. Isn't there a book kind of like that already from some school teacher?

Tonight I have so much homework to do--it's not even funny. Well, it actually is kind of funny because all of the HA students are in a tizzy, and I'm beginning to wonder if everyone will make it to Thanksgiving break. I know there's a lot to be done, but I'm just kind of going with the flow. Everyone else is about ready to pull their hair out--or pull out someone else's hair. :-) These people are so funny. I always thought I was kind of high-strung, but now I realize that I definitely am not--because I have now seen first-hand what truly high-strung people are actually like. Tomorrow I'm going to get my oil changed and tires rotated, then it's off to the library, then back home to do laundry and a whole bunch of other things. All is craziness here!

Tifford Dudley

I forgot that last week I was going to post the picture of the close-up of my Halloween costume: Tilford Dudley's moustache! Don't you think there is a close resemblance there? You can just call me Tifford Dudley :-) This is probably the most simple Halloween costume I have ever had. It seems like Halloween was about a month ago, but it was really just a little over a week ago. Time is not moving very fast, but at the same time, it seems there isn't enough time to get everything done!

Today I had Historic Preservation, which is one of my favorite classes. Dr. Small is a really good teacher, and I have learned a lot of valuable things in that class. After class I went over to Dr. Reid's to take care of her kitties. They are SO CUTE!!! I think they are my new favorite kitties. Katie was being shy when I was there the other day, but today she became my new best friend. I sat down on the couch, and Katie and Eleanor both plopped down there by me--Katie in my lap and Eleanor on the back of the couch. They were purring like crazy, and Katie kept licking and licking my hand. We had a definite bonding experience and are now the best of friends. In a few minutes I need to head back to school and help Dr. Hardeman out this afternoon. Hopefully we won't get any more essays about how the South won at Antietam!

Guess what--I got a raise! All of the grad. assistants got a raise a few weeks ago, which we thought was because of our department's "First Choice" award status, but it turns out that all of the grad. assistants across campus got a raise. So, now we got our "First Choice" raise, and they will be paying me $890 per month (before taxes, so maybe about $820?)! That is incredibly generous!! EIU rocks! I think everyone should come to grad. school here :-)

Bad Mousies, Locked Doors, and Lincoln Logs

Today was a beautiful fall day!! Finally Greg and I took a picture of ourselves--isn't he cute? He drove down to Charleston today to take me to lunch at the new Mexican place--the "Little Horse" place that has delicious food. After lunch we went out to the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, and it was very fun and fall-ish out there. We even saw the newest member of the Lincoln Log family: the little piggy! This is the pig that my classmate Matt, who works at Lincoln Log, drove to Memphis yesterday to pick up. Isn't it the cutest piggy you've ever seen? Catherine, Aly, and I watched "Charlotte's Web" the other night, and now we've all decided that we love pigs and spiders, and we all kind of want pet pigs. I think the new Lincoln piggy is going to be getting a lot of visits from us. The last picture is of the pretty fall colors that were all over the place out there at the cabin--it was a perfect day! Greg and I like each other a lot. He told his grandma the other day that he has a girlfriend, and she started to cry (tears of joy) and said, "It's about time." :-)

Sorry that I forgot to write on my blog yesterday--I was totally stressed out. Yesterday morning we had Dr. Barnhart's class. It is one of the most random classes I've ever taken :-) It makes us laugh because he'll ask a question, and someone will respond, but then he'll start talking, talking, talking, and talking. Then, about 45 minutes later, he'll stop and say, "Others?" (As in, do any of us have other answers to the question?) But by that time we can't even remember what the question was. It's so funny because he does that multiple times every time we have class! Ha ha. It makes us laugh. The other day Dr. Small asked us a question in class, but it was a really long question, and by the time she was done, Laurie said, "Wait, what was the question?" Dr. Small started to laugh and said, "Uh oh, I did a Dr. Barnhart!"

After class yesterday morning I worked with Dr. Hardeman. He was especially tired, and we read the same essay about seven times before he was able to make comments about it. He would zonk out for about ten or fifteen minutes at a time, and I would try to wake him up, but he would only be awake for about two seconds before kicking out again. We got one whole test graded in two and a half hours :-) It was pretty funny though because in the essay on this particular test, the student kept talking about how the South had won the Battle of Antietam. But, the South didn't win the Battle of Antietam! True, it has often been called a stalemate, but strategically the North won the battle. This kid's whole essay was based on the "fact" that the South won the battle. It was, according to this young man, "An important political victory for Robert E. Lee." I don't think so.

Then last night we had our Material Culture class which was very fun. I brought the pizza, and everyone had a good time eating and learning about historic house museums. Dr. Reid brought in a book she had ordered called "Bad Mousie" which was written by Tilford Dudley's wife!!!! She was a children's author, and had written this kids' series called "Bad Mousie" about a mom mouse whose husband leaves her and she has to raise the little mice by herself. Hmmm, do you think she was trying to say anything about her own life? Could we safely assume that "Bad Mousie" was symbolic of Tilford Dudley? I think so.

After class last night Dr. Reid took me over to her house to teach me about the kitty routine, as I will be taking care of the kitties this week while she is out of town. Her kitties are super cute, and Eleanor especially seemed very intrigued by me. The problem was, Dr. Reid's door locks are a little tight, and we couldn't get into her house at first! It was kind of funny--we were out there in the dark trying to break into her house. I think she was a little panicked, but we finally got in, and with a little hammering, the lock works wonderfully now. :-)

This morning we had our Museum Administration class, and a CPA came to talk with us about accounting for non-profit organizations. She was a super nice lady, but everything she said was way over all of our heads. She was asking us questions, and all we had to offer her were blank stares. I think she realized the depth of our lack of accounting knowledge when she did a story problem on the board where someone made $100 dollars a month and owed $50 rent plus $150 for utilities, and she asked me how she would go about paying for the utilities in that situation. My response was, "Don't pay the rent?" My fellow students thought that was a good solution, but the answer according to her was that the person needed more income so they should get a second job. That's silly! :-) It was kind of a long class, but it's good to know about those things.

Well, I've got to go have dinner before heading off to the weekly meeting later tonight. Since we had class last night, our "mandatory" meeting got bumped to tonight. I think that we would all survive if we didn't have the weekly meeting, but everyone is quite convinced that these meetings are absolutely necessary. I bet Abe Lincoln would say we didn't need all of these meetings.

Cooking with Garlic

Here is the surprise of the century: I have become quite the acclaimed chef here among my little HA world in Charleston, Illinois. I usually don't have time to whip up anything, but for the past few days I've made some pretty fancy schmancy dishes. On Friday Alyson wanted to make some broccoli and garlic pasta from an old Italian family recipe of hers, which sounds like a great idea, but whenever she has cooking ideas, she never actually wants to do the cooking (she's afraid of the stove--especially when oil is involved). So I whipped up the broccoli and garlic pasta, and my hands have smelled like garlic ever since :-) I am also quite well known for my Asiago, Romano, and Parmesan cheese chicken, and now everyone's new favorite dish is the bruschetta chicken bake which Mom sent me the recipe for. We had Angie and Kristen over for dinner last night, and they couldn't believe the bruschetta chicken. We had leftover garlic from the other night, so the girls made some lethal garlic bread, which I'm sure people will be able to smell on us for weeks! It's been fun though to try some new recipes, although now that another week has started, I don't think there will be any more fancy cooking going on until the weekend rolls around again.

Today I had my Museum Exhibits class, then I got some work done at school before coming home and sitting on my bed to do some reading. I inevitably fall asleep anytime I do that, but I think I did really need a little nap this afternoon. Then I went to Institute class and am now back at home trying to do the reading that put me to sleep earlier. Tomorrow night we are having our Material Culture class (which is usually on Wednesdays) because Dr. Reid will be out of town on Wed. I have been given the mandate of procuring some pizza for class tomorrow (well, I kind of volunteered for this assignment), so we should have some good eating times there. Speaking of eating, I haven't really had dinner yet, so I'm going to go rummage through the fridge. Oh, and all of us HA students are quite famous after having the big feature in the paper yesterday! We were the buzz of the History Department today :-)

Tilford is Smiling

Thank goodness I talked with Mom on the phone last night so she could remind me to set my clock back an hour! Otherwise I would have shown up to church an hour early this morning. I like that we gain an hour of sleep, but it makes me sad that it gets dark earlier--now it's going to get dark really early here because we're kind of on the backside of the central time zone anyway. It's okay though because I spend most of my time in class or doing homework anyway :-)

Well, we HA students are quite famous. Today in the Mattoon Journal - Charleston Gazette they printed the full-page story about us and our Dudley project. There's a big color picture of our group sitting out in front of the Dud's house, and then a really nice, long article about all of our presentations and everything. I thought that you all would appreciate the first sentence of the article. It says: "Somewhere, the spirit of Tilford E. Dudley is smiling." Yes, he'd better be smiling after all we went through for him! :-) The newspaper guy interviewed Catherine and me when we were over at the house the other day, so he put some good quotes from us in the article. They even put a pull-quote in from me (one of those quotes printed in bigger type), but the way he wrote it was a little different than how I said it. It's okay though. He wrote that I said: "I find it especially interesting what Tilford was doing in Washington, D.C. was affecting his hometown. He was always fighting for the rights of labor." What I actually said was: "I find it especially interesting THAT what Tilford was doing in Washington, D.C. was affecting his hometown. He was always fighting for the rights of the LABORER." I guess it means pretty much the same thing--the first one just kind of sounds like I don't talk right. :-) It's quite cool though--I'll send a copy of the article home to Mom.

Today at church I filled in for one of the primary teachers. I got to teach the 4-7 year olds, and they are super cute. This one girl was wearing these adorable pink cowboy boots! Well, I'm off to do some house surveying--we are going to finish our portion of the survey today!!! I had a great time in Springfield (actually Athens) with Greg yesterday--we had fun hanging out, watching movies, etc. He is a super nice guy, and I think things are becoming quite serious between us. As I've been thinking about it, I'm kind of feeling like things may be progressing a little too fast. Hmmmm, I don't know though. I don't know what to think anymore! :-) It's all quite exciting. If anyone has advice for me, please call or e-mail. I have already gotten some very helpful advice from Mom and Dad :-) Well, I've got to run. That's good that Tilford's spirit is off smiling somewhere!